We finally arrived back at Laoag City, but it will still be a while before our bus back to Manila will depart. So what do you do here? We basically wandered around the plaza in Laoag City taking photographs of the wonderfully lit fountain area. The plaza is quite busy since it is in beside a main road of Laoag City. Moreover, the air in the area tends to be a little dirty.
We wandered around the area for a bit including the provincial capitol of Ilocos Norte. With such a big amount of important buildings in the area, it is little wonder that the place is quite traffic prone. This seems to be common liability of Philippine cities where cities outgrow their own infrastructure but nothing seems to be done about it. It was only a matter of time before it become chaotic.
How I long for the time when we were still in Vigan City when there were hardly any motorized vehicles in the city square. Laoag City seems to be the complete opposite of Vigan in this respect. We grabbed some food at Jollibee while waiting for our bus. While eating I realized how interesting this trip has been. It was like traveling back in time, and walking through living museums. There is so much history to be seen here in the Ilocos Region, sometimes you just need to look a little harder. With a little more marketing, the Philippines can definitely be marketed as the Italy of the East.
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